Kars exists

Reading Snow, I've been wondering how much of the background is real, and how much is fictionalised.

I'm surprised to find that Kars exists, and is quite an interesting place - near the border with the former Soviet republic of Armenia, and with lots of history. The emerging Turkish state signed a Treaty with Russia there in 1921.

I've been looking at Turkey and there's more surprises. Here's some things I didn't know:

• It's the 17th largest country in population, with 72 million people.
  
• In 1923, Mustapha Kemal kicked the Allies out (they were occupying it after the fall of the Ottoman Empire) established a republic and named himself Ataturk ("father of the Turks")
• There were military coups in 1960, 1971 and 1980.
  
• The term "Bey" means "chief" and is roughly equivalent to our "mister".